Tag Archives: future generations

Seeing this plant age so gracefully inspired me with its elegant lines, uprightness, and gesture indicating it had sung many happy songs in the sun. This will surely affect the next generation, gifts to its children, as its ancestors influenced this one. I have observed this kind of plant in the spring during which it has a structure that looks star-like from which flowers sprout. All its blossoms spring from stars.

“Everything
we think,
feel, and do
has an effect
on our ancestors
and all future generations
and reverberates
throughout
the universe.”

—Thich Nhat Hanh

“Your body is not yours alone.
It belongs to your ancestors,
your parents,
future generations,
and to society
and all other living beings.
All of them have come together
to bring about the presence
of this body.
Keeping your body healthy
is an expression of gratitude
to the whole cosmos.
If you are healthy
physically and mentally,
all of us will benefit.”

“All our ancestors and all future generations are present in us all the time. Happiness is not an individual matter. As long as the ancestors in us are still suffering, we can’t be happy and we will transmit that suffering to our children and their children. When we walk, we can walk for our ancestors and future generations. Maybe they had to walk with sorrow; perhaps they were forced to march or migrate. When we walk freely, we are walking for them. If we can take one step freely and happily, touching the Earth mindfully, then we can take one hundred steps like that. We do it for ourselves and for all previous and future generations. We all arrive at the same time and find peace and happiness together.”—Thich Nhat Hanh